Vaira: The Legacy of Cyrus
by Rediamond
Summary: Decades after the Spear Pillar Incident, the universe is once more in peril. Called by the gods to prevent the apocalypse, a general-turned-teenager, an alien with godlike powers, and the hero who defeated Primal Dialga and Darkrai must band together to save a world that hates them. Will (often) return reviews of sufficient quality.
1. The First Apocalypse

"Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other…"

-Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto

"It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

"Very well! Do what you will! Rather than repairing the world, you're going to destroy it for me! Do it. You inherit my legacy."

-Cyrus, Pokémon Platinum

* * *

><p>Veilstone City: December 1999<p>

"At its core, humanity yearns to be complete… it longs to reach a final state. Perfection. Wholeness. We see it every time a crisis arises and a visionary comes forward with a new, bold plan. Marx sought the end of history, the completion of humanity. In their own ways, so did Hitler, Mao, Reagan, Ghandi, and Tupuhi. None succeeded. They passed, taking their visions with them, and humanity remains incomplete. Why?

"I have pondered the subject for years and come to one inescapable conclusion… Spirit. Emotion. Knowledge. Willpower. These forces that philosophers across time and space have hailed as the foundation of our humanity… they hold us back. The public believes they want peace. Every leader professes their desire for it. Yet on a daily basis on scales vast and small humans come into conflict. They clash and compete and leave all worse off because of it. Strife arises whenever peace sets in for a fleeting moment… How does it end? How do we overcome the barriers that mankind has so long desired to break?

"The answer is simple. We can't. Humanity is incapable of doing so. At the core of the human condition lies a weak and impotent spirit that undermines all we strive towards. We desire petty things and act irrationally. We hate when others interfere, inadvertently or otherwise, with our foolish schemes. The only way to fix humanity would be to change it… To destroy this spirit which cripples us."

Cyrus gazed across the assembled crowd of men and women in faux spacesuits – spacesuits! It made no sense. It was irrational. He hated the uniform. But Saturn had insisted it made the team stand out, that it struck terror into the hearts of all who opposed him. He consented. She was a competent lieutenant. He was a busy man in need of one. It made no sense to argue. In this case the rational decision was to comply with an illogical one.

"Yet spirit remains etched deep into the essence of the planet. The ancients worshiped the embodiments of it as atuas… immortal spirits to be praised and feared. We live in an age where mankind has split atoms and landed upon the Moon, where space has faded to nothingness in the face of electric transmissions. Why should we remain afraid? Why should we be in awe of ancient deities?

"The world still has gods, beings that can create and destroy and change the world around them at will. But those gods are no longer incomprehensible forces beyond our understanding. Indeed, they are more familiar than they have ever been. We, humans, have learned the secrets of the universe and how to make the power of the cosmos our own. Why should we be kept weak by the gods of old? Why should spirit bind us. I… I seek a world without spirit… a new world of reason where mankind has transcended its limits.

"I thank you for your assistance thus far. I invite you to join me on the last stretch of my quest… the last quest that shall ever be undertaken. Together we can erase this imperfect universe, this prison of spirit. Together we can elevate humanity to a condition we can today scarcely dream of. Our time as incomplete and fragile beings staring at the universe in terror and awe has ended."

Cyrus' eyes hovered over the assembled crowds, the gullible pawns who would propel him to the end of everything… no… the beginning of everything.

"Now the universe shall fear man."

* * *

><p>Hall of Origin: November 2063<p>

Lightning shook the temple as Palkia appeared. The Master of Space craned his neck to assess the situation and immediately realized it was every bit as grim as he had expected. The lights were dimmed; it looked as if nightfall was coming. There was no night on the Hall of Origin. Never. Even Giratina himself couldn't bring it. The floor shook periodically as lightning bolts rained down beneath the building onto Spear Pillar. Bursts of thunder followed the strikes with pulses of sound and vibration that penetrated the idyllic sanctum of The Creator.

Dialga glanced at his sibling and sighed. "The Old One called you, too?"

"Yes. The message said very little, but…" A blast of lightning and the shock of thunder shook the room. "This certainly can't be good."

"Certainly not if I'm here," a new voice said as Giratina's form slowly appeared beside them. "If Arceus deems something more terrifying than me, we could have a real problem."

"Indeed, we do."

A veil lifted in front of the Creation Trio as a pure white being lowered itself down to their level. Multiple arms extended from its halo, nervously scraping past each other and the air. One or two would snap back violently every time the thunder roared. Arceus' eyes were closed, but the eyelids were twitching and occasionally a crack would form between them. Palkia gulped. The Elder God had taken Cyrus, Deoxys, Tupuhi, Shadow Lugia, and the threat of nuclear strikes in stride, seldom stirring for an instance when those threats loomed. Now something terrified the centaur.

"I trust you know about the demon below."

"Yes, master," Dialga said. "We are aware what it is. But I think the threat it posed was dramatically understated to us."

Arceus' form quivered. "Dialga, my child, that remark sounded dangerously insulting. I sincerely hope that was not your intent."

"No, sir. I just hadn't been told that he could pose-"

"Old One, what is it you want us to do?" Palkia interrupted. It was a bad day already. Arceus and Dialga fighting would only make things worse.

"I wanted your input on that matter," Arceus responded. "Our time and options are limited but existent. How should we react?"

"Destroy him," Giratina said. "I have torn dimensions asunder and left galaxies trembling in my wake. My siblings hold nearly as much power as I. This demon wouldn't last a second against all three of us."

"How much collateral would that leave?" Dialga asked. "We might destroy the demon, but would we succeed in finishing off this world? And what would happen then, should this mountain fall with it? Our powers are vast. Possibly too vast to do what you suggest this close to Spear Pillar."

"I, maybe I could teleport him somewhere else." Palkia said. "It would give us more time to consider our options, and if we teleported him far enough away it might be safe to fight him."

"That sounds good. Teleport. Destroy. Done," Giratina said.

"Do you have the power?" Dialga asked. "I've tried altering his history—I am sincerely sorry, Lord Arceus, I should have asked first- I got nothing. He has too powerful of a presence. If I cannot bend time around him, could you alter space to a significant degree?"

"No," Arceus said. "Lord Palkia could not. This demon cannot be defeated by any of you through indirect means. Even combat would be a risk."

Palkia blinked. Twice. Combat a risk? What in creation were they dealing with?

"I will also not allow you to fight the demon so close to my home. I have thought long and hard about this problem. I sense there is only one option."

Arceus' voice lingered in the chamber as the thunder intensified below.

"We must rely upon our creations to save us once more."

"Um, pardon me, but aren't they trying that now? Isn't there an entire army below getting destroyed?" Dialga asked. "It's not working. Got another plan, perhaps?"

Red light shone through Arceus' eyelids as a ball of Judgment formed above its back. "Now is not the time for accusatory responses, Dialga." Dialga stepped back as Arceus' shook. In time the light subsided and the god went back to his agitated slumber. "Alas, I require your services for a short time more. Your obliteration must wait for calmer days. No, the army failed. It was bound to from the start. The humans now are too divided and weakened from their own conflicts. The time and method were wrong. We must approach both differently on the next attempt."

Arceus' made another dramatic pause. The ground shook with the force of a missile strike and Palkia interjected to hurry the conversation along. "What method should we use, then?"

"Destroy the humans?" Giratina said.

"No," Arceus replied. "Definitely not. Giratina, do you wish to join Dialga in annihilation?" When the Guardian of Beyond didn't answer, Arceus continued. "We must take the same approach as we did in ancient times with the Heroes of Spirit."

"We take three pokémon, give them fantastic powers, and ask them to defeat our enemies? Great. If we can't beat this thing in a battle, how will we create three other pokémon who can?" Dialga asked.

"No. Not pokémon." Arceus said, ignoring Dialga's tone. "This is a challenge for human champions. You shall each select one warrior to prevent this threat from ever occurring, since you seem so intent on altering the past with or without my permission, Dialga. Palkia, Giratina you may select yours from your realms. Dialga… as punishment for insulting me, I will select yours for you, as well as the conditions of the temporal reset."

"Hmph, see if I care," Dialga said. "As long as the threat gets dealt with. There are many great warriors from across time."

"I was thinking of one from the army below, in particular. You seem to have great respect for my armies, after all."

Dialga craned back his neck. "The girl?"

"Yes."

"Please, no. Not her. She hates me. I hate her. If I didn't need her right now she would be lost inside of a time abyss."

"That sounds like my relationship with someone else."

Dialga shook, his diamond glowing as if he wished to dispute the ruling with force. At last he drooped down his head and stared at the ground. "Fine, do what you will."

"You will help her on her quest."

"Don't push it."

Arceus snorted. It was a very strange sound coming from such a powerful and ancient being. "So be it. You will at the very least explain what is going on and not hinder her."

"I will explain what's going on."

"And not hinder her."

Dialga groaned in exasperation. "Fine."

"Then it is settled," Arceus exclaimed. "Go and fetch your champions. I shall prepare the reset."

Palkia nodded and warped space around it to go to a point in space far, far away. There was a girl there he had pitied for a long time. A girl of tremendous power. As he left, Dialga's telepathic voice sounded inside of his head.

_How much do you think I could mess with her before Arceus noticed?_


	2. Psychedelic Death Threats

_Aracai Rangan_

Celestic Town: September 2046

I want to start this story with two truths: one simple and one complex.

The complex truth: At the time the story started I was a sixteen-year-old girl in 2046 who had once been a thirty-three-year-old woman in 2063. Blame mental time travel.

The simple truth: Not everyone wants to be evil, but they don't understand how to be good. They need someone to show them that.

For example: occupants of the Awa Hotel seemed utterly incapable of grasping the fact that there was a global water crisis from the way they kept sending their almost spotless towels to be cleaned. Granted, the water crisis never got quite as bad in the South Pacific as the rest of the world since we could always haul in icebergs to melt, but it still says something about the average citizens lack of perspective.

It was rather monotonous work by any standard, made far worse than it sounds by the breakneck speed demanded. Take pile of towels made by exploited labor in Africa. Put into washing machine made by exploited labor in Asia. Turn to clean pile of towels. Stack. Send to someone else in the basement. Repeat at a ridiculously fast pace for hours. Break. Resume.

I had worked the front desk for a year or so in the past/future. Management figured that if they had to have vaira working directly with guests they might as well be pretty. Incidentally, the hotel eventually got some complaints about taking jobs away from sinnoans so they hired some maori to work the front desk. I got moved back behind the scenes in the process. It wasn't a horrible loss. It didn't have to deal with the half-second of awkwardness people got when the realized they were going to have to talk to me, someone who was visibly not like them.

Down here I only had to deal with Nanakia. He would stroll down occasionally in his overly fancy manager's uniform with flaps and pads that looked like the should have metals hanging from them and a long, white, silk scarf. He'd glance over at what I or some other vaira was doing, Occasionally he'd give some bullshit suggestion about putting in more or less softener or increasing the temperature or something equally dumb. Usually he would just encourage us to work faster. There was a lot of work to be done and only three people to do it. He was young, no more than thirty to be sure, and basically ran the hotel since his uncle was rich and had bigger properties to manage. In the years where he could have been going to college he had been an above average coordinator. There were interviews and pictures of him during his days of minor celebrity plastered around the backrooms as a passive aggressive gesture to the vaira.

I gave up this to come manage you; you'd best behave well.

In reality, he hadn't given it up voluntarily. Nanakia had something of a gambling problem and bet that he wouldn't coordinate for five years if he lost. He lost. Now the bet had expired. I wasn't quite sure why he didn't just go back to coordinating and leave the hotel to someone else. No one really was.

"Break time. You have thirteen minutes for lunch today for performing well. Use the extra five minutes wisely." His voice preceded Nanakia into the room. Upon entry he glanced around to make sure that the right people were doing the right thing. He smiled at me in a way that wasn't altogether friendly when we made eye contact. His eyes dipped a little low and lingered for a second before I turned back around and he left the room.

I sat down on one of the chairs in the room and pulled out my lunch sack. I had three mid-sized berries today. Two oran and a pecha. I hated oran berries, but they were the cheapest and easiest to find so I pretended to like them around my family. I said a prayer before eating the pecha first. It ensured I managed to finish something during the break. When I was halfway through eating the first oran my father entered the room and moved towards me. I pulled up a chair with my left hand and he sat down

"How has the work been, Shastra?"

I should probably take a moment to note that at this point I was called Shastra. I prefer Aracai but almost everyone calls me Shastra now. That's the disadvantage of taking a new name in a future that doesn't technically exist and wouldn't have happened yet if it had.

"It's been good. Fast, but good," I replied while eating the last of the berry. It was rude, sure, but he was almost paranoid about me eating enough. If I had tried to be polite he would have been very nervous.

"Good, good."

He said "good" a lot. I think on some level he believed that if he said it enough it would become true. He slipped me a bag with a colbur berry in it without making eye contact. Colbur berries are literally the best thing about the sinnoh region. I ate it in a matter of seconds.

"You know, Nanakia and I had a talk earlier." I looked up. If I needed to know about their talk, it couldn't be good. I started eating again after a moment. I was doubtful I could eat four berries in thirteen minutes and hold a conversation if two of the berries were disgusting. "He's offered us some more money if you take a promotion and start working full time. It was a very good offer."

I very much did not want to take that offer. Nanakia was already creepy so I did not need him thinking I owed him, and I had something else on my schedule lined up for the next few months that conflicted with everything else. My father probably only had a vague understanding of the first point and I sincerely hoped he didn't know about the second.

"I, look, I know we could use the money but I want to finish secondary school first. Can we at least wait a couple months?"

My father frowned. "Why? You can legally drop out. What good will schooling do you anyway? Certainly didn't help me."

"I, um, look. Look, can you just give me some time, okay? Just a little."

"I see." He stared forward and stroked his beard. His tone was neutral but cold. What good was a nearly adult girl who wasn't married, dating, engaged, or even accepting full time employment when it was offered to her?

"Alright, time's up. Get back to work everybody," Nanakia said as he entered the hall. He smiled at my father when he saw him, clearly aware of what we had just talked about, and helped him stand up. They walked together as they left the room. It wasn't altogether uncommon since my dad was officially in charge of managing the vaira, but on this occasion it made me vaguely ill.

* * *

><p>I always took a certain path through Celestic Woods home from work. There was a nice clearing the middle where I could gather thoughts or do some quick reading. I walked and read quickly, so I could usually get away with reading a short chapter or two and still be home before suspicion would be raised.<p>

A lot of people say that it is horribly unsafe to walk in nature without a pokémon. That is not at all the case. If you aren't an idiot, pay attention to your surroundings, and carry some pepper spray for good measure you should be fine.

Which leads to another complication I was facing. I didn't have a pokémon. I was in a position where I would probably need one rather soon.

Why? Because I had to save the goddamn world.

No, seriously. Dialga (with whom I have a long and complicated history) appeared to me after I royally screwed up saving the world in 2063 and told me that Arceus was going to reset time and space to a position from which the world could be saved. Which meant that I got to live life as a vaira teenager again. Of course, he hadn't bothered elaborating upon _how _he expected me to be remotely helpful, but I wasn't really expecting him too. That would have been too easy.

Giratina and Palkia also had champions. The difference was, they liked their champions. They were (more or less) capable of saving the world and were in a position to do it.

I met them in the clearing.

Jane Doe was leaning back against a tree with her eyes closed, as per usual. Yes._ Jane. Doe._ She was an alien from some far-off planet who looked more or less human, except she couldn't have been much more than 1.5 meters tall. Her understanding of human culture was rather limited. I think she unironically named herself Jane Doe _to avoid suspicion_. She had a ralts that usually sat beside her. I wasn't quite sure how an alien ended up with a ralts, but I had learned that it was easier not to ask questions.

Evyrus, the lone male on our Triumvirate of Destiny (Jane's term. Not mine.), was working through a children's reader when I entered the clearing.

Before you ask, "Wait, if you have a really short girl and a guy working through a children's reader, how old is this team?" I was actually the youngest physically. Jane told me her species was naturally short and Evyrus came from a place where pokémon apparently ruled society, so the writing system there was almost incompatible with those of Earth. He was apparently currently a human from another dimension where he used to be a pokémon who used to be a human from the future. He explained to me that it all had to do with my patron, Dialga, who he had to knock senseless to restore her senses. We weren't sure if that made us friends or enemies. He knew spoken English and Maori (he wasn't sure how) so we could communicate reasonably well. His infernape and chatot were resting in the trees around him.

I began the conversation the only way you can in a group consisting of members that strange.

"So, how was everyone's day?"

Jane opened her eyes and blinked as her metallic irises slowly faded to a more normal blue. "Oh, fine, I guess. We kind of hung out around the center. I watched some television. He read. I have no idea what you were doing because I was a good girl today and didn't psychically stalk you like you asked. Happy?"

"Reasonably so," I replied.

"I'm making some progress," Evyrus said as he closed his book. The bookmark was on a page about a fat cat sitting. "I still need Jane to read for me but I should have the hang of it soon enough."

"So, um, about that plan you said you would have a week ago, do you have it yet, because I'm getting kind of bored," Jane asked while she fidgeted in place as if to show just how bored she was. "Celestic's nice and the ruins are pretty and old, but I want to see more of this place."

"Surprisingly, yes. I might have something of a plan. You did bring the documents I asked for, correct?"

"Yes," Evyrus answered as he pulled a book and a reasonably thick stack of printed pages from his backpack. "We got some weird looks at the library when we wanted to check this out. What exactly is it?"

"Legal stuff," I replied as I took the material. "Labor law stuff. I want to figure out if there are any loopholes I could use to go on this journey, since at the moment there aren't any great options for me getting out of here. Which brings me to the plan. I find a way to get out of here legally. You two do the gym challenge, enter the tournament in July and try to win or do well. That should get you enough recognition and credibility that when we do need help, real help, we can get it. Or we get more information about the demon from knowing people higher up the ladder. You'd get stronger in the process. That would help."

Evyrus nodded. "What about you? Aren't you going to do anything?"

"I'll be your guide. I couldn't beat the demon before the reset and I definitely couldn't go from having no pokémon to going toe to toe with that monster in a matter of months, if it came down to it. I'll just focus on learning more about the demon and keeping a low profile."

"Still, you could help us. And it'd be more fun if you joined!" Jane interjected.

"Well, uh, I'd love to. But it's safer if I don't, Jane. High power vaira tend to become targets of bad people here. Like Nazis."

Jane blinked. It was an odd sight, since her eyes rippled across all their possible colors when she did it. "Nazis? I thought they died in Germany?"

"Not literal Nazis," I responded. "Just people very much like them. Bad, bad people."

Evyrus shifted uncomfortably. He probably didn't have any idea what we were talking about but he didn't like the feeling of it. I'd gathered from our conversations that the guy had some experience with nightmarish dictators messing up the world.

"Well, what about the Frontier?" Jane asked. "If Evyrus and I are really good, wouldn't it just be more challenging to do that and wouldn't it make us more famous?"

"It has notability requirements. You can't just challenge the Frontier. And also I think 'more challenging' things aren't really needed right now. And you only have a ralts. That won't have many Frontier Brains quaking in their boots."

The ralts opened her eyes at that and glared at me. I felt psychic waves bombarding my body and mind from every direction. I warded it off, of course. I had training. But it felt more like a warning than an actual attack. She might just be a ralts, but she packed some serious ESP.

I shook myself off slightly and nonchalantly bushed a strand of my bangs out of my eye. It was empathic, but I could at least keep looking stoic on the outside. Jane laughed. I didn't quite know how extensive her psychic powers were, but she was definitely capable of getting around my mental blocks. It was not unreasonable to believe she was empathic, too.

"Anyway," I said while frowning, hoping she would get the hint, "it's not really possible at this point. If the demon doesn't surface by the tournament I suppose you could do the Frontier next year."

"Who determines notability?" Jane asked. "Frontier Brains themselves? Could one of them let me challenge?"

"I have no idea. Why, do you know one?"

"I can convince most anyone to do most anything here, if I really wanted. Humans have much weaker minds than I was expecting."

"No mind control," Evyrus said. "Just don't. It's not right."

"Even a little?" Jane pouted.

"No," I said. "None."

"But if I hypothetically did-"

"You would be caught. Some reporter reviewing the match would realize that you didn't have any credentials to challenge the Frontier with and your challenge would be suspended. Do it enough and you'd probably get us all arrested or discredited, which goes against the entire point of the plan."

Jane rolled here eyes as another flourish of color flashed through them. "Fine," she conceded. She looked far more annoyed than fine.

"Well, if that's settled, meet me here again Monday at the same time. I should have made some progress on my end of the plan by then."

* * *

><p>My father could try to guilt trip me into doing something I didn't want to do, but I was much better at passive aggressive warfare. I also did the cooking. Incidentally, I had a far higher tolerance for spicy food than he did. That night I served some of the spiciest sambar I could make. I liked it and his taste buds got the point. He stopped bugging me about the offer for the time being.<p>

* * *

><p>That night I stayed up late reading through the documents that Evyrus and Jane had given me earlier in the day. I shared a rather small room with both of my siblings, sleeping on the highest bunk of a bed quite obviously meant for children. Reading was only possible due to a window letting in the light of the full moon.<p>

I hadn't lied. They were legal documents. That made it somewhat harder to stay awake.

I should probably take this space to further elaborate on the context of the word "vaira" in this narrative, for the benefit of those living outside of Sinnoh.

For roughly three decades before this story begins, the Neoliberals had used means legal and illegal to maintain power. Meaningful elections had been suspended at some point well before I came here. They had only recently been promised again after a particularly violent wave of attempted coups from the right-wing militias.

The Neolibs were rather famous for their attempts to modernize Sinnoh, partially through reliance upon the inventions, designs, or concepts that Cyrus' Team Galactic, now Galactic Enterprises, had left behind. While some of their plans brought prosperity and modernity to the urban areas of Sinnoh, others weren't quite as glamorous. One came from a left-wing coup early in the Neolibs' reign.

For whatever reason, the government was almost tolerant of resistance from the far right. They watched without doing much of anything as they formed ever more powerful militias and made ever bolder threats. But when the Communists tried to do damn near anything, a crackdown was imminent. After the first big one, the government figured it would crush the labor movement as a whole. Using the shifting demographics of Sinnoh and the industrialized world as a cover, they had justified the mass-use of 'guest labor,' as it's called. People they could import for a short period of time and send away before they could gain the status needed to organize. People who came from countries where the money they claimed to be paying was a small fortune. Then the reality would set in. Almost any expense they could justify the guest workers paying for would get docked from their pay. Minor infractions could cost up to 200,000 sinnoan dollars (2000 USD). And that was before factoring in the reality that very few people wanted you there. Quite a few viewed you as an active threat to their culture or well-being. Sinnoh had not historically had immigrants. Their first experience with them was from a scheme explicitly designed to cripple their laborers. That wasn't the best impression. They had labeled us "vaira," or "foreigners," as a term of hatred.

My family was given far more permanent residence than most since my dad had learned Maori in university, giving him the ability to communicate well with both the vaira and their masters. He also knew enough about business to be justifiable as "necessary labor," meaning that he could stay here until the company either agreed to sponsor his permanent residence or until they decided they didn't want him anymore. Then he would get a 48-hour notice to be out of the country. That was the far more likely outcome, and what eventually did happen.

My problem: finding a legal way out so I could get on the road and start saving the world without getting my family or myself deported. On my twelfth birthday I signed a part-time contract, since that was the only way a non-citizen could really get employment in this country and my family needed it. Violating that by walking out would put my family, and myself, in some legal hot water. So I needed some way to get either dismissed from work for an indefinite period of time or, ideally, get Nanika to sponsor me for permanent residency. Neither was terribly likely. So there I was awake at almost midnight, reading legal documents to figure out what loopholes I could abuse or what I could offer my boss to make it worth his while to let me go.

* * *

><p>The next morning on my way to work, I met a ralts in the clearing introduced earlier. Her comically large head tilted up a little to meet my gaze when I walked in. I think I had woken her up, but she seemed to be expecting me from the look in her eyes.<p>

"Hey." I bent down. "Are you Jane's? I've never really dealt with-"

At about that point everything turned white. When color returned, I was somewhere else entirely.

* * *

><p>"Greetings, Miss Rangan."<p>

I looked around me to see a field of multicolored flowers, some of which were colors that should not have existed in nature. Others were glowing. Some were both. The clouds were shades of red and blue and the sky was faintly orange. I turned to see a girl only slightly younger than me (physically) sitting high up on the stump of a redwood. She was barefoot and wearing jeans with the legs cut short and a tie-die t-shirt. Her hair was barely kept, with sprigs of an unknown plant in it. Her eyes were composed of several colors and patterns all at once, like they were kaleidoscopes I was looking through.

Full disclosure: I have never consumed alcohol. Not even in the past-future. I was even more averse to taking less socially acceptable mind altering substances. But this was more or less how I had always imagined the world would look under hallucinogens.

"Miss, Rangan, I'm talking to you."

I blinked and looked back up at the girl. The sunlight shone behind her and the entire field was already disorienting.

"Oh, hi. Are you a hippie or something?"

It was an idiotic reply. But how else do you reply to that kind of situation? Seriously.

The girl smiled. "Something to that effect. I've always admired that part of your culture. Peace, harmony, The Beatles. Beautiful. Simply beautiful."

"_Your _culture? So you are Jane's ralts. An alien, right?"

"Yes, yes I am. I merely wished to communicate with you in a form you would be at ease around. Talking to pokémon is not standard on Earth, I believe."

I glanced around at the multicolor land, noticing new distortions. The clouds were rising and falling like wax in a lava lamp.

"Not really, but this definitely isn't standard on Earth."

"Well, of course not, but it's a metaphor or something. You are familiar with the concept. It is meant to be relaxing and portray my own ideals for life in the world. You understand, yes?"

"Nope. Can ralts even get high?"

The girl glared down at me. "I don't know. I haven't had the chance. Why?"

"I, uh, no reason."

"You haven't even asked my name. That's the first step of basic politeness, is it not?"

"Usually," I replied. The ralts-girl continued to glare at me. "Fine. What's your name?"

She relaxed only slightly. "Jewel. I trust you know what those are, earthling."

I couldn't tell how much of an insult that was meant to be, but my facial expression must have given away my irritation. Jewel giggled, but continued to look deadly serous for a hippie.

"Well, this has been a nice talk. Did you actually have any reason to psychically kidnap me beyond telling me your name?"

"Of course," Jewel scoffed. "I wanted to give you a stern warning not to harm my mistress. It might be inevitable since you're such an uncivilized brute, but it will at least mean that you know what's coming when I crush your skull down to the size of a soda can."

I rolled my eyes. I was unfortunately quite used to death threats. Even really weird ones.

"Right. Can we go back to the part of the conversation where you talked about peace and harmony? Or where you decided you wanted to be a hippie? Do you actually know what any of that means?"

"Of course I do," she pouted.

"Threatening to crush someone's head generally isn't viewed as peaceful or harmonious."

"You lie."

I continued to stare at Jewel's dream projection. An odd thought popped into my head that I probably shouldn't have said aloud. But I figured that she was probably already tracking my mind. If 'peace' was too hard of a concept to grasp, I doubted she would do much better with 'mental privacy.'

"For a baby pokémon, isn't your human form pretty old? Baby humans don't look like that."

"I know what baby humans look like. I am older than my evolutionary stage suggests. And far more powerful."

To prove her point she shook the ground. The lucid sky turned green, as if a tornado were imminent, and Jewel's eyes turned red with black patterns spiraling within them.

"So tell me, puny girl: do you wish to challenge me?" she asked.

Then I watched as the world became taller, or rather I became smaller. I wanted to make some snarky response but found that it only came out as "goo gah?" The newly giant Jewel stood above me as her clothes morphed into the translucent dress of a ralts.

"Who's a baby now, earthling?"

Then the world faded once more.

* * *

><p>Talking to Jewel had at least one positive effect: it made the inevitable confrontation with Nanakia much less intimidating. He had the ability to keep me in Celestic indefinitely and deport my entire family with no reason, but he wasn't the hippie Freddy Krueger.<p>

"Hey, can we talk for a second?"

They were the last words I had ever expected myself to say to Nanakia the first time I was this age, but here I was saying them. He smiled.

"Of course. Let's just go to my office. It's quieter there."

I paused. I wasn't quite sure I wanted to be alone with him, but it also didn't want my plans to become common knowledge just yet and really didn't want my father finding out through the rumor mill.

"Sure," I agreed. If nothing else I had picked up a little boxing in the past-future.

We walked up the staircases to the fifth floor. I honestly thought he would take an elevator. He wasn't fat or anything, but he had never struck me as a man who cared much for fitness. Along the way we passed by several old magazine pictures of him with his froslass and weavile, either holding a ribbon or executing moves that would win him one.

"How many contests did you win?'

"Thirty-one in seven years," he replied almost instantly. "I started when I was about your age with just an eevee. Went on to become one of the greatest ice-themed coordinators the world had ever seen. Fantastic career." He frowned slightly then and stopped walking. "Do they have contests in India?"

"I, uh, wouldn't know. I'm not from there." Because all people of Indian descent were from India of course.

"Oh, right. Prak is from… Guinea, right?"

"Guyana," I corrected.

"Right, right." Nanakia stood there for a moment and mouthed 'Guyana' a few times before nodding, content he had committed the information to memory. "Sorry about that. I'm just a busy guy."

"I'm sure you are."

He opened the door to his office and walked in. There was a desk for a secretary that was currently vacant after the last one had quit. I didn't quite remember that story; I would need to ask someone about it. He kept walking into his inner office and sat behind his desk. He invited me to pull up a chair.

The room had a few very large posters of his pokémon on the walls. Glaceon, weavile, froslass, abomasnow, mamoswine… he wasn't kidding when he said he liked ice types. The rest of the office was surprisingly bare for belonging to an ex-coordinator. There were a few pictures of his family on a nearby filing cabinet and a stack of papers on the desk. His glaceon sat on a padded circle on the floor. It stirred when I sat down and stared at me as ice crystals spread across its bed. Then it went back to sleep.

"I suppose you're here about the promotion," Nanakia said.

"I, uh, no. Not really. I was actually here about the opposite sort of thing." Nanakia raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. "I would really, really like it if you could sponsor permanent residence for me or at least void our contract."

He laughed. It was the boisterous laugh of someone trying to enjoy a joke they don't find funny.

"Right, right. Interesting. So, about the job-"

"I'm serious." I made eye contact and straightened my posture. At one point I had a rather impressive death glare. I suspect the blood red contact lenses had something to do with that.

Nanakia shifted uncomfortably. "Can I ask why?"

A rather long moment passed before I answered. He probably thought I was just trying to make up more of a bad, impulsive joke on the spot. In reality I was considering whether I should say 'Because I need to go on a journey with an alien and a human-turned-pokémon-turned-human in order to save the world.' I decided he probably wouldn't go for it.

"University, really. I'm going to graduate soon enough. There's nothing technically prohibiting me from going to school here if I'm a permanent resident. After I get job training and such I could come back here with more human capital and be a bigger asset."

He drummed his fingers on the table. "And why would you come back?"

"My family, of course."

"And what would I gain from having you as a general manager over your father? I can deport him any time I want. Makes it kind of hard for him to negotiate on terms. Let's be real: I'm not used to the hotel business, but I'm not stupid. You'll have to make me a better offer than that now."

I exhaled slowly. When the carrot fails, blackmail is often usable.

"I could always go to the press, you know. Talk about the plight of underaged girls being forced to labor without citizenship in borderline illegal conditions."

Nanakia took that much better than I thought he would. He frowned and glared, but otherwise remained calm.

"The working conditions here are quite legal. The pay is shit, to be sure, but it's better than what any of you could make back home. I don't deport without reason and don't really threaten it. I'm one of the best bosses this side of Coronet. And you turned sixteen two months ago. You're legally of age."

"In most of the world I wouldn't be."

"And in Ancient India you would be expecting your third kid or something. It's all relative. Who would you report this to, anyway? The press? Quite fond of the status quo. It's made their reporting terrible, hell, _I _have to go to the underground papers to get decent news, but it dooms you. The communists? Well, I've got a story for you."

He stood up and his glaceon stirred once again. This time it stayed awake as its entire bed was flash-frozen.

"My uncle is a very wealthy man. He has been for some time now. At first he was nice enough. He helped me get this job here. But ever since The Backlash, he's been getting more and more paranoid. He's convinced that the Reds are coming for him and his money, convinced that the government isn't taking the threat seriously enough, convinced we need to let the Brigadiers take charge." He shook his head. "No, no. He's wrong. The Communists are there, sure, but they aren't nearly as powerful as everyone believes. The government and brigades want to play up their threat to justify their policies and fear. The communists like feeling powerful. But they certainly aren't a threat to me or anyone else. I don't fear monsters in my closet, so to speak. Is there anything else you want to threaten me with or can you get back to the rest of your shift, adding on three hours for wasting my time?"

I shook my head. I would need to go back to the drawing board. I think a tear or two accidentally ran down my cheek. I wasn't sad, really. Just frustrated. I occasionally cried when I was frustrated.

"Wait," he called before I could leave the room. "There's something you can give me that I want, but you won't do it. There's something you want that I won't give you."

I wasn't sure what 'something' he was referring to, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it was the job.

"This isn't really a case where we can trade."

"Right, but it is something where we can compete." He smiled. "How do you feel about a wager?"

* * *

><p>Next week:<p>

After receiving an impossible challenge, Aracai considers her options for leaving Celestic. In the meantime her brother and fellow heroes try to force her hand.


	3. Seeing Red and White

Chapter Two: Seeing Red And White

In the late 1990s and 2000s, a wave of young people did some pretty impressive things in the South Pacific, like taking down crime syndicates or beating old masters. A wave of Horatio Alger-esque fiction followed from the minor publishers and the Internet screaming: Children of today, you can do this too! Carpe Diem! The world is yours!

The plots were almost all directly ripped from what actual heroes did. The characters were usually flat. Most of the stories were cringe-worthy. I'm worried that a second wave might be coming. That's why I'm writing this, because of the simple truth I outlined in the last chapter. I'm sure they won't mean to be insulting or demeaning. It'll still come out that way just because they have no possible way of knowing how hard it is to save a world that hates you. Now someone's shown them; they have no excuse.

If it sounds like I'm being overly harsh, let me give you an example: openings. Most of these stories opened with a poor or middle class kid getting a pokémon in a chance encounter with destiny or from the local professor. They would then proceed to leave and no longer have any financial, legal, or family issues ever again. Certainly the second chapter of one of those stories would never open with the heroine trapped in Celestic with no legal way out and no pokémon.

But that's where I found myself the day after the last chapter ended.

* * *

><p>"What do you mean we still can't leave?" Jane whined.<p>

"I mean that I need more time to work things out," I replied. "My initial plan failed so now I need to think of another one. That's all."

"We've been here over a week. Have you even talked to your boss yet? I can talk to him if you want. I can be quite convincing," Jane said.

I ignored her offer.

"Yes, I've talked to him. He declined my initial proposition."

"And? Anything else?" Jane asked.

"Well, he offered to made a bet. It's impossible, though. Taking it would all but guarantee failure. I'll need to think of something better."

"What was the bet?" Evyrus asked, marking his first question in the entire exchange.

"He's a former coordinator. He said he'll let me go if I can win the contest on the eighteenth."

"And why is that hard? Evyrus and I are going to have to crush gym leaders or frontier brains or whatever. Contests aren't even real battling."

"Just gym leaders," I corrected. "Frontier is probably unviable right now."

"Whatever," she pouted.

"Anyway, it's impossible because I don't have any pokémon. Most of the people who enter Celestic contests aren't even that good, but they're certainly better than a girl who's had her team for a little over a week. Losing the bet would basically kill any chance I have of leaving. So, it looks like we're back to the drawing board."

"You don't have any pokémon?" Jane asked.

"I've said that before."

"Still sticking with that story?"

I looked at Evyrus. His expression didn't make it clear if he knew why Jane was suddenly curious about this topic. "Yes, it's the truth."

She glared at me as her eyes flashed metallic. "People don't lie on Ek. You're one of the first liars I've met. I hate liars. I want the truth."

I felt her mental offenses pressing against my safeguards and made a strong effort to fight back. If she was anywhere near as strong as her ralts, and I believed she was actually far more powerful, it was hopeless. But symbolic defiance can be important when it's the only kind you have.

"I thought we had rules about mental boundaries," I said.

"Yes, yes we do," Evyrus agreed. "Jane, if you're attacking Aracai, please stop. We're going to need trust if we can get through this."

"I can't trust liars," she said. "I want the truth."

We kept glaring at each other and she kept prodding my mind. But she never made a serious attempt to break in. She was putting up a symbolic offense at that point. Those could be important, too.

"If that's settled," Evyrus said, "let's talk about some other options. I think Jane and I would like at least a little input on this, or at least would like to know what your thought processes are."

"Alright," I said.

"Sounds good," Jane agreed.

"Something I've been wondering, Aracai: why can't we help? You might not like it but Jane could just do some psychic work and we could be done with the whole mess."

"Because of the message it sends," I replied without hesitation. "I don't need some outsider to come in and swoop me out of the situation that the Maori have conned me into taking. I want to do it myself. Need to do it myself. It's how I lived last time. I was most certainly not a helpless victim rescued by a stronger man. Or woman. Whatever the case may be. Point is, I refuse to fall into that position this time around."

"I, um, I don't really get it," Evyrus replied.

I sighed in exasperation. "Were there systemically oppressed minority groups where you lived?" I asked.

"Dialga didn't like the people trying to overthrow him. I think what he did qualified as oppression."

"Were there people not actively trying to overthrow Dialga that Dialga persecuted anyway?" I clarified.

"Kind of everyone."

"Well, you probably wouldn't get it. Jane? Any reference point for you?"

She was silent and still. Both were unusual for her.

_Yes_, Jewel said. _She has a reference point._

I was now curious, but it was clear I wasn't going to get an answer from her then. "So she gets it. I can't just rely on outside help to get me out of it. It's something I've got to do myself."

"I need to get going. Bye," Jane said before disappearing in a teleportation flash with Jewel.

I frowned. "She can teleport?"

"I just kind of assume that she can do everything a psychic type can do and then some," Evyrus said.

"You still want to talk about options, or would you rather go and deal with her?"

"You scare me much less than she does. I think I'll stay with you. Besides, who knows where she's actually at now."

"Alright, I don't have much longer to talk, but we can talk about a few things. You wanted to know about options, right? Other things we can do if this spectacularly fails?"

"I actually wanted to know what your current plan—"

"I don't have one." I looked him straight in the eyes. "I don't have one. I never really did. I figure I'll come up with something eventually, but…" I trailed off and brushed my bangs aside as my gaze fell to the ground. "I don't think I will right now. What's probably going to happen is that you'll have to go on with Jane and occasionally call back to me if you need to know something."

"Please don't do that," Evyrus said. "Please don't. I have no idea what I'm doing here and Jane, well, she thinks she knows things much better than she does. We'd probably both get hopelessly lost or violate every social taboo there is within a week on the road. Then we'd be arrested or mocked or something else that would keep us from ever saving the world. We need you. We'll need you with us."

"Bullshit. You've been doing well enough without me."

"We get strange looks."

"Just act like you're foreign or something. It's not technically a lie."

"Shastra—"

"Aracai."

"Aracai," he corrected. "What did Dialga tell you about our quest?"

"Very little that would actually be helpful."

"Well, Jane and I talked to our champions. Giratina told me that you absolutely needed to be with us, at least until the thunderstorm subsided, whatever that means. We need you."

"I'm not letting Jane rescue me."

"What if it was that or the end of the universe?"

I paused.

"I'd think about it, maybe."

* * *

><p>My father enjoyed his dinner far too much to provoke me about the promotion. Maybe he knew about the bet. Maybe he didn't. Either way, for his stomach's sake he didn't confront me until it was almost impossible not to. I played nicely. The curry that night wasn't even all that hot by my standards.<p>

"Dinner's good, Shastra," my mother said. "Good job."

Which likely meant: thank you for not doing that thing you did yesterday again.

"Very much so," my sister Maya added. "I do like some of your spicier food though."

"I don't," my father said between bites. "There's a limit to how hot even Indian food should be. What'd you even use last night, ghost pepper?"

"Only a little," I answered. "They aren't cheap so I can't use much. I still have a couple more stowed away if you want to try them again."

That was about the end of complaints about my cooking. It's how I learned soft power. You don't have to be stronger than your opponent if they are utterly dependent on you for the essentials of life. Usually the people providing the essentials just don't realize it.

"How was your day, dear?" My father asked my mother.

"Aadi's doing well for the most part. I spent a few hours with him and Dhwani at their home. They're almost settled in." She paused. "There are a few legal issues for them. She might lose her job and since she's an Indian national and Aadi's Guyanan there could be some problems. They hope everything will turn out alright."

In case you didn't pick it up there: Aadi is my oldest brother. Total straight-edge, suck up, honor-your-parents-and-traditions-above-all-else type of guy. He tried to kill me once in the past-future. He is married to another more or less permanent vaira. Of course, since neither of them had citizenship or a decent pathway to legal residency in the other's country things could get tricky if one of them got deported. Their employers knew it. Aadi might have been working for less than I was. Not that he would complain, of course. He was far too stoic for that.

My father nodded. If he had an emotional reply to give he would do so later in private, ideally when his children were away. The apartment we shared was really too small to get emotional in secret.

"And your day, Jayu?"

"Alright, I guess. Some rich tourist left a massive tip. I even got to it before a supervisor could take it from me. I'll give it to you after dinner."

That got a smile from the old man. It was technically theft since vaira were supposed to give all tips to the hotel as a reward for letting you work in Sinnoh, but it was theft that was unlikely to be noticed and would help with purchases.

Father would probably use a bit more supervision in the next few weeks just to make sure it wasn't spent on ghost peppers.

"Good, good." The conversation turned to cricket, which almost made me feel bad. He never asked Maya how her day was because he kind of hated her, so excluding me was definitely not a sign of endearment.

* * *

><p>"Anything bothering you?" Jayu asked as he finished setting up a chessboard.<p>

We were in a run-down park near the apartment. It was usually deserted, largely because the swing set was rusty and would probably break if anyone actually tried to use it. The table was functional and it was a quiet place, so Jayu preferred to play chess here.

"You could say that," I replied as I eyed the board. He challenged me to a game of chess every day. There's a stereotype that intelligent people are very good at that game. Some probably are. I'm not. I couldn't have been any fun to play, but for some reason he kept challenging me. I kept playing because I liked talking to him and it was the best way of getting out of the house and doing so.

"Nan told me about the bet," he said. "Why the hell did you take it?"

"I didn't," I blurted out. For a minute my mind shut down in shock. Was Nanakia not even letting me decline his deals? "It was stupid and impossible so I didn't. Did he say otherwise?"

"No, he didn't clarify. I just thought you'd take any challenge thrown at you." He laughed to himself before his expression turned serious again. "Why the hell did you make it, then?"

"He did. Can we get to playing?"

Jayu shook his head. "Can we talk first? This is big."

"Fine."

"Why did you let him make it? Why do you want to leave?"

"Jayu, I…" Much to his credit, I came closer to revealing the truth at that moment than at almost any other point in the early stages of the quest. "It's complicated. I have reasons that I really want to tell you about, but can't."

"You pregnant?" He asked. "Shit, you're pregnant, aren't you? That's why you want to get away. I swear if that bastard—"

"No, no. Definitely not pregnant. Nothing like that," I interjected. "I, uh, you know I wouldn't let him do that, right?"

Jayu smiled. "Of course, sorry about that. But seriously, why do you want to leave?"

"It's just something I have to do now," I said. "Can we leave it at that?"

He moved his hand towards the board as if he wanted to motion for me to move. For a minute he held it there before he pulled it back.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"You mean why do I want to leave? I thought we just went over that. It's complicated."

"No, bigger than that. What do you want out of life? What do you want to do with your time on the planet?"

"My answer to a specific question is too complicated to tell you, so ask me a bigger question and expect an answer?"

He laughed. "Basically."

I stared at the board and lifted a pawn after a minute of feigned consideration. I had no idea what I was doing.

"No, seriously. What do you want?"

"I don't know, probably the same thing as everybody else," I said.

"And that is?"

"To leave this place better than I found it."

"And you think that everyone wants that?"

"Yes, yes I do."

"Cyrus?"

"I think in his view of the world, he was trying to make the world better. That just happened to mean destroying it for him."

"Hitler?"

"Why does everyone always invoke Hitler?" I complained.

"He's a pretty well agreed upon definition of evil."

"He didn't kill puppies," I said. "So if he's the definition of evil, then killing puppies can't be evil. And all vegetarians must be evil. He was vegetarian. So both of us are monsters."

"You know you're defending Hitler, right?"

"I'm not. I'm just objecting to your statement."

"OK, OK. But my question still stands. Did Hitler really just want to make the world better?"

I sighed. "Look, probably. He might have done some bad things to do it, but in his mind I think he wanted to make things better. He just wasn't terribly good at it and his view of 'the world' was rather limited."

"So which world do you want to make better?" Jayu asked.

I rolled my eyes. "This one. It will inevitably get better. It just needs people to guide it along."

"So you want to leave to guide things along?"

"I, um, no. That's not quite the whole reason." I had forgotten that he was at least my equal in manipulating conversations and people. "It's complicated, even less personal in fact. But what do you want? Dialogues are between two people."

It was his favorite quote. I loved using it on him.

"Eh. I'm not sure I have some big want yet. I think too many people rush into it and by the time they find out it doesn't bring them happiness it's too late. So I just talk to people. Figure out what they want and try to help them with it. Maybe when I've worked things out they'll return the favor."

I nodded and looked back at the board, more out of courtesy than understanding.

"If we're still going to play, it's your turn."

* * *

><p>By the end of the next school day I had been praying on and off for roughly eight hours and still had nothing close to an answer. I had prayed to Shiva, Saraswati, Kali, Murugan and many, many other deities. Just as the last bell rang and I had to make one final trip to my locker and then head off to work, a strange thought occurred to me:<p>

Why not try Dialga?

It made sense. She was technically my patron, even if we'd had a rough history. Besides, she obviously had something of an interest in not letting Coronet get overrun again.

I ended up giving roughly the following prayer:

Hey, Dialga. Look, I get that we've had some issues in the past. I'll be the first to apologize. I'm sorry for blowing up your temple that one time. To my credit, I haven't even done it yet! It was an accident anyway, more or less. There just happened to be people in there I needed to take care of and my orders got a little muddled. Point is, I'm sorry. Now, if you could give me some help with saving the world like I'm supposed to do, and more specifically getting me out of Celestic so I can save the world, it would be appreciated.

Thank you.

* * *

><p>Dialga must have hated me a lot more than I expected. She answered.<p>

* * *

><p>When I walked out of school, I saw Evyrus standing near the entrance. He looked really uncomfortable. That was normal. I don't think he had ever seen a settlement of humans nearly as large as Celestic City, which wasn't even large by Sinnoh standards. He saw me walking towards him and smiled. His chatot fluttered off of his shoulder when he started to move and his infernape began to walk towards me on her knuckles.<p>

"Hey," I called. "Any reason you decided to meet me today?" Especially at a place where we would be seen together. News traveled fast in vaira communities. I doubted it would be taken well if I was seen walking with a slightly older man that my parents didn't know. If nothing else, I would have to add it to the increasingly long list of things I needed to explain.

"I just wanted to talk without Jane present," he said. "I can talk to her without you a lot, and, no offense to her or anything, I need a break sometimes."

"I can identify with that," I said.

We walked into the tree line at one point to go along my favorite path in the woods. I briefly considered if that would make the inevitable talk at home even worse, but figured that there was a definite limit to how well things could go when I had to break the news I was leaving anyway. I might as well get a preview.

"Has Jewel talked to you yet?" he asked.

"Ugh, yes. I thought her trainer was bad, but at least she isn't psychotic magic hippy."

"Is that what you call people like her?" Evyrus asked.

"It refers more to people like her who are way too high to bother with killing you."

"High? Like, mountains?"

"Add it to the list of Earth-things I need to explain to you," I replied.

"OK." A pause settled in as we walked over the wet grass. It had rained earlier that day. It often rained in spring. "What did Jewel say to you?"

"She assumed I was hellbent on killing Jane and threatened to further de-age me, or just outright kill me. I don't think ralts actually have time powers, so probably the latter."

"Kirlia," he said. "The damn thing evolved. Flaunts her body constantly to my partners. If she was smug before, you can't even imagine her now."

"Oh. Wow. Sorry you have to live with her."

Evyrus' chatot loudly screeched at a nearby pachirisu before flying after it, chattering incessantly.

"Chatot! It's not worth it! You don't have to pay back every insult," Evyrus yelled.

As he rushed forward and alternated between lecturing his chatot and apologizing to the pachirisu, both in their own languages, an interesting thought occurred to me.

"You can speak to all pokémon?" I asked. "Not just yours?"

"I spent long enough surrounded by the language. You start to pick it up," he said.

"So you can actually speak it?"

"A little. It's hard to do with a human mouth. Most of the pokémon here seem to get the basics of the local human language as well, even though the species don't seem to get along as well as they did at home."

"It makes sense. The Maori hunted pokémon for a long time here before, allegedly, the local legendaries took action against it. They probably learned as a survival tactic."

Evyrus looked appalled as he stared at me with a half-open mouth, his hand almost clenching at his side.

"That was a very long time ago," I clarified. "A couple hundred years before I was born. And they also weren't my ancestors, mind you. Indians had much more respect for the animals and pokémon of our lands."

Another pause, this one far more awkward, filled the void in our conversation. Eventually Evyrus filled the gap with the aspect of the human experience most intricately linked to senseless violence:

"So, uh, in the past, future, whatever thing—"

"Past-future," I corrected.

"Right, that. Anyway, in the past-future, were you married or anything?"

"Engaged," I said. "Had been engaged for a few years. We wanted to put off the ceremony until the demon was defeated. By the time it became clear that wasn't happening, well, it seemed altogether too depressing to actually get married and we had much bigger things to deal with."

"Oh," he said. "So, did he die?"

"I take it your culture is rather heteronormative," I said.

"What?"

"It means that the cultural values reflect straight relationships. It's a huge problem here in rural Sinnoh where the Brigadiers are popular. You just assumed I was dating a guy."

Evyrus blinked. "You were engaged to another girl?"

"If I was what difference would it make? In any case, I was bleeding out when the world ended so I was actually more dead than my partner."

"So you were dying?"

"If you want to be technical I still am. And so are you. But at that point I was dying a lot faster than I am now."

He dropped the conversation. We were close enough to my workplace. He said goodbye and left. He didn't shake hands or hug or anything like that. He didn't seem to like touch very much at all. It made him even more uncomfortable than normal.

* * *

><p>"Hey, you. I want to talk."<p>

I looked around the laundry room to figure out where the voice was coming from.

"I'm not there. I'm back at the Center."

"Jane?" I asked, mentally.

"Yes," she replied."

"I thought we had an agreement about mental privacy?"

"How is basic telepathy violating your privacy?"

"You knew I was looking around."

She didn't reply for a moment. "Fine, I'll stick to telepathy."

"So, what do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"Evyrus is out and, while you're still a liar and I might hate you, you're the only person I can talk to outside of Jewel. I could talk to people in the lobby, I guess."

"Don't do that."

"Alright, then I'm talking to you, liar."

"Why am I a liar?" I asked.

"Because you lied to me," she responded.

"About what?"

"You know what."

"No, I really don't. Please tell me."

"You're lying again."

I shifted my attention back to work. This was a pointless conversation. Then my hands stopped folding towels. Trying to do so just made my arm muscles strain against themselves until I felt like I might tear my body apart.

"Jane, bodily possession is most definitely a violation of privacy and I suggest you drop it right now."

"Then talk to me."

"I actually have some serious psychological issues with possession. It would hurt our cause if I had a breakdown in the middle of work."

"Why? How'd you get those?"

"I don't like talking about it and if you probe my memory for it, I will kill you. No mercy. No regrets."

She was silent for a minute.

"How would you do that?"

I chose to ignore the question. I already had enough things I was dealing with that I needed to do and had no way of doing.

"I'm starting to panic a little. Please let me go."

She complied, mercifully.

"So are you going to tell your boss no today?"

"I already did. I don't need to again."

"Meet with him at all?"

"He might come down to check on me and/or check me out. That would be it."

"I see."

She was silent for another hour and a half.

* * *

><p>I decided to eat lunch alone in a corner of the hotel's basement that was old enough most people had never encountered it or didn't give it much thought. The hotel was old, even by Sinnoh standards. Portions of the underground were still earthen, even as the rest was updated so that it only looked like a relic. Tourists liked the idea of old things, but they didn't want to live in one.<p>

Unfortunately, solitude can only be chosen if all other parties agree to respect it.

"Hello, Shastra. Odd seeing you down here."

Nanakia strolled into the dank room, looking extremely out of place in his elaborate jacket surrounded by the smells and sights of the mud that humanity had once built with before we found less natural, more desirable diversions.

"Just eating alone. Why are you here?" I asked.

I had left my pepper spray in my backpack in the laundry room. This was going to be resolved by talking alone.

As he began to reply, Nanakia's glaceon walked into the room and the temperature instantly dropped. The fox grimaced as she stained her perfect white fur brown with an unfortunate brush against the wall.

He picked his pokémon up, letting some of the mud rub against his immaculate jacket, but didn't seem to mind. For a moment I wondered if he might get frostbite.

"I have to inspect the facilities from time to time for the bureaucrat's sake. The hotel's older than their grandparents and they still question its safety."

"I see," I said. "They obviously don't respect tradition."

"Not in the slightest, no one in government does. We've run this land our own way for centuries but the damn Enterprisers wonder how we ever survived without regulation and free trade. As long as they make a buck, well, to hell with Sinnoh."

"I see."

"As you should. So, you thought over the wager anymore?"

Yes, yes I had as a matter of fact. And I still wasn't willing to take it. I'm sorry.

"Yes, yes I have as a matter of fact. And I've changed my mind."

You can guess which one I meant to say.

_JANE! _It is possible to mentally yell. I was doing it.

"Really?" Nanakia asked.

"Yes," my mouth said. "You're on."

_I swear, if you don't let me take back control of my body right now, I will rip you limb from limb and leave you for the staraptor. _

_You can try,_ she replied.

"Well, then, I suppose you won't mind if Snowflake and I get into the action ourselves? Since you have agreed, and I have a vested interest in the outcome, it only makes sense that I be allowed to participate."

Three thoughts popped into my head: 1) That was the absolute least original name I had ever heard for a glaceon. 2) Jane, please don't make this any worse. 3) Dialga, if you are in any way responsible for this please know that I can now blow up your temple a second time, this time around for actual vengeance.

_I wouldn't threaten beings far more powerful than me if I can give you this much trouble,_ Jane said.

_You are the single most despicable bitch I've ever met, and I have known more genocidal maniacs than any person ever should._

She didn't respond to that.

"Fine by me, if you're fine returning to a loss."

"Well, then. If you're so cocky about it this should be a great match. I look forward to seeing what you bring next Saturday."

_Please renegotiate to the next Saturday, if at all possible. Please. Please. Please. Please._

_Thanks for using the magic word._

"Wait, if you're going to enter can we push back the contest a week?"

"Not quite so confident now, are you?"

"Well, I need something to combat ice types. I was more prepared for the usual trainers."

Nanakia chuckled. "Fine, fine. But that's as far as I'll push it back. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more of the hotel to inspect."

He left me alone in the moist, earthy cavern. I found myself staring at his retreating form, watching as his immaculate clothes disappeared into the darkness.

_Jane, I don't care who you check out, but don't make me do it. Especially to him._

_I am not checking him out,_ she replied. _Just observing his clothes. They seem rather fashionable._

_Oh, boy. He's got a fashion sense,_ I replied. _Sure, he's wearing nice clothes but he's also, I don't know, economically blackmailing my family, which sort of conflicts which fundamental human decency and our goal of saving the world. _

_He listened to reason, _Jane added.

_He was willing to accept terms that benefited him tremendously._

_Not if you win._

_I can't! It's impossible!_

_You have a pokémon. _

I paused for a long time.

_You think I'm a liar because of that?!_

_You do own one._

_Only… no. I'm not having this argument now. Let me go. I need to be let go. _

_What's the magic word?_

I gave her two. They served their intended purposes.

* * *

><p>When I got out of work I ran to the Pokémon Centre, utterly oblivious to the misshapen paths and the Brigadiers and the pedestrians and the other vaira. They didn't matter.<p>

Long before I reached my destination my vision was already filled with red.

* * *

><p>When I got close to the Centre itself I saw Evyrus standing outside with his infernape. He saw me and moved to block my path. I didn't slow down. He visibly sighed and started walking towards me, his infernape moving beside him. I tried changing paths a little, but his infernape easily outmaneuvered me. I came to a stop. There was going to be a confrontation and, while I might be able to overpower Evyrus despite his considerable size advantage, I knew from personal experience that a trained infernape was more than a match for any human.<p>

"What do you want?" I called out to him as he finished walking to me.

"What happened with you and Jane? She didn't say much about it when I got back."

"She possessed me, made me take the bet, and then checked out my boss in my body. Can you step aside now?"

"I thought we had a 'no possession' agreement?"

"As did I."

Evyrus exhaled and closed his eyes as he analyzed the situation. "I will definitely talk to Jane about that."

"I don't think she understands what privacy means, and at this point I doubt she'll learn before she violates both of ours completely."

"No, no she gets what privacy means. She just doesn't get that most humans aren't psychic."

"What?"

"When I came in and talked to her about what she did, she justified herself by saying that you would have fought back if you were actually uncomfortable. She thought she was doing you a favor."

"I was fighting back. I'm a black belt at three mental defense martial arts. I was fighting back as hard as nearly anyone can."

"But it still barely even registered to her. Think about that. Barely registered."

"I think I can make an impact that registers with her. Step aside."

Evyrus raised a hand as if he was going to put it on my shoulder in some fraternal, condescending gesture. Then he withdrew at the last moment.

"If she can override your body, how do you plan on hurting her?"

"She caught me by surprise. I'm angry now. Very angry. I can take her."

"Maybe so. But what about Jewel? If she sees you trying to kill her trainer… I wouldn't want to be in Celestic. Mew knows what she would do. You can't talk to her now, much less try to attack her."

"And does that justify her actions? I spent almost two decades laboring in conditions far beneath me because I was afraid of people. Then I decided to fight back and my fears weren't justified. They were reversed. I might be sixteen again, but I swear that I will not again be controlled by power alone."

"Aracai, you're yelling. You might want to quiet down if you want to avoid attention."

"Do I look like I care?"

"No."

"It was a rhetorical question."

"I figured as much. What I'm trying to say is that if you really, really want to do it, I would wait. Just ride the journey out. You'll gain power and find out her weaknesses and when the world no longer needs saved, well, I won't stop you. But until then we need her power and your knowledge to get through this."

I grimaced. I didn't like it. Jane needed to die painfully and soon. Still, he had a point.

"Fine. I'll hold back for now. You still might not get to see me on the journey if, no, when I lose to Nanakia."

"You think I'd let that happen? Or Jane, for that matter?"

"I expect you to respect my wishes and stay out of my business."

Evyrus shrugged. "If you lose, I'm not sure I can stop Jane from pulling some strings. She's already anxious to leave and now she'll have to wait a few more days at best."

"Weeks," I corrected. "I got her to push it back a week."

"Well, then, if you won't be too busy training Friday night, there's someone coming into town. He sounds like he's stirring up unrest. Could be bad news for us."

"Did you get a name?"

"Urayu."

"Oh… no. He's not a threat. He's on our side."

"OK then, I guess. I guess I can't complain about being allied with troublemakers. It's happened before."

"Good. There's a nice cliff above the amphitheater. I'll give you directions later. We can meet there. Oh, and don't bring Jane to our meetings until then if you really want to keep her alive."

"OK. Just, don't do anything drastic, alright?"

"Alright."

He put his hand on my shoulder. Then he passed out.


End file.
